“In the first half, we did what we wanted to do,” Andrews said. “We were playing well in all three phases. I really liked the demeanor of our team at halftime, and coming out on the field and to start that third quarter, I thought our head was in the right place. I don’t think we took our foot off the gas at all.“
Mac Grant III picked off a pass on Morehead State’s first drive of the second half, but a holding call against Josh Williams negated the turnover.
That’s where Morehead State’s comeback began. It scored four touchdowns in a nine-minute stretch to tie the game at 28-28.
On the sideline, the defense tried to stay positive.
“It was all just going so fast,” defensive tackle Mirko Jaksic said. “There really was no thinking. It was just, ‘Go back out there. Play another drive. Get another stop.’”
Vincent Firenze’s blocked field goal with 4:51 to play provided the spark for the offense, which scored the go-ahead touchdown on the next drive. The defense then forced a 4-and-out to clinch the game.
“It’s really a testament to the coaches and players,” Andrews said. “Not a lot of teams give up 28 unanswered and then make the plays in the fourth quarter to get a win.
“You’ve got to come out of there understanding a couple things. It’s a road win in the league. That’s a big deal. It’s not easy to win games, especially on the road in the league. And then the second thing is you’ve got to be able to look back at what happened. How do we correct some of those things?”
Dayton (4-1, 2-0) gets a chance to do that in another road game this weekend. It plays at Valparaiso (1-4, 0-1) at 2 p.m. Saturday in Indiana.
Valparaiso lost 41-0 at Drake (2-2, 1-0) in its Pioneer Football League opener last week.
Valparaiso’s first-year coach is Andy Waddle, a Greenon High School and Wittenberg University graduate who was a two-time Ohio Athletic Conference Coach of the Year (2017 and 2023) in 12 seasons at Marietta. Another Clark County native, Southeastern and Wittenberg graduate Reed Florence, followed Waddle from Marietta to Valparaiso and is the team’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Dayton beat Valparaiso 26-14 last season at Welcome Stadium but lost 21-7 in 2023 in its last visit to Brown Field.
“They embarrassed us my freshman year,” offensive lineman Zachary McDowell said. “I really want to get that back for us. I feel like we deserve that as a team.”
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